The report “Improving Living Conditions in Palestinian Gatherings Host Communities” was produced by the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies to assess conditions and vulnerabilities in 42 Palestinian gatherings in Lebanon in terms of housing conditions, access to services, employment opportunities and safety conditions. Moving beyond basic needs assessments, the report sheds light on the means by which inhabitants secure services and jobs. It is based on a survey representative of all dwellers of Palestinian gatherings run to 2,000 respondents in the summer of 2017 and is complemented by further secondary data and key interviews with stakeholders.

The main recommendations of the report can be broken down four ways. First, policy dialog and advocacy campaigns should be held with both local and national governments, in order to improve land tenure and the legal conditions of Palestinian workers in the country, in particular related to formalizing their employment status or allowing the access to public insurance. Second, more targeted funding is needed to ease the most pressing issues instead of a regional approach. Third, vocational training and employment programs should be linked to skills that firms demand, connecting them through interviews or internships in order to expand residents’ limited networks beyond the few low-skilled sectors available in the surroundings. Key information should be made available, for example for building resources for entrepreneurs or expanding the knowledge of students about job opportunities.